In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, where pressure cookers were used to house explosives, many satirically suggested that the government would immediately react by banning the household devices. Now it seems that may actually be happening.

Two different reports in the last week have suggested that the TSA has confiscated pressure cookers from people traveling through airports.

One of the incidents occurred at Hilo airport and involved a passenger traveling from Hilo to Honolulu on a Hawaiian Airlines flight. TSA screeners called the FBI after discovering what “appeared to be a modified pressure cooker”.

The FBI said that the passenger was detained for questioning, and that items in his luggage were seized. Although initial reports suggested that bomb making literature and batteries were also found, this has not been corroborated. Indeed, the FBI stated that the man did not have any dangerous materials, was not arrested, and that he was released.

“The FBI does not believe that this incident poses any imminent threat to civil aviation based on our limited investigation thus far,” a written statement said.

In another incident on Saturday, reported by the Detroit Free Press, a Saudi man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport while traveling with a pressure cooker. Customs officials reportedly found the cooker in the man’s luggage after noticing that he had a page missing from his passport, which he could not explain.

Reports suggested that documents filed in court claimed that the man lied about the reason for having the pressure cooker, first saying that he believed they were not sold in America, then claiming that his nephew, a student in Ohio whom he was visiting, had bought one, but it had broken.

After officials investigated, they found that the man’s nephew does use a pressure cooker, and that he wanted to cook lamb, but was not happy with cookers he had bought in the U.S.

The FBI declined to comment on whether or not pressure cookers are now among the items prohibited by from air travel. They are not listed on the TSA’s website as being prohibited.

The panic surrounding pressure cookers was not just confined to airports. Last week, another Saudi student in Michigan told reporters that his home was surrounded by FBI agents after neighbours reported seeing him carrying around a pressure cooker.

Following questioning by the agents, it turned out that the man was cooking rice and taking it to a friend’s home. An FBI agent reportedly told the man that “You need to be more careful moving around with such things.”

Yeah, cooked rice can be deadly.

All these incidents highlight the rampant fear that is being instilled in Americans to the point where they will literally call the FBI if they see a brown person doing something they find suspicious.

It also highlights the fact that security theater does noting to actually keep anyone safe, but it does instill paranoia and panic.

Check out the video below of a student posing as an activist attempting to gain signatures for a petition to ban pressure cookers in order to keep everyone safe. She tells other students that pressure cookers, “were actually used in the Boston bombing, so we’re just trying to limit who can get them,” adding that her organization is, “just trying to keep people safe by reducing the number of them.”

It would be hilarious, but when so many people unquestioningly sign their name it simply becomes frightening.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.